FARMERS AND FARMING. No. XV.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2134, 13 March 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARMERS AND FARMING. No. XV.

Rkck.ntia' I was very considerably surprised, not to say annoyoil, by the unplp.i'.int announcement that in future our milk would be 5d per quart, or l.s 8d per % dlon, instead of 4d, as in tho pa«fc, and incidentally asknijr the price of somo nice bacon, I wsi.s told it w<»s lid per lb, thouifh it can be bought at much loss. I merely mention thene matters to show that my former Ohtimatoh ro milk, etc.. were within the mark, and that tho conspipiioious hnnp«ry of our retail tradesmen wof a very elastic nature. Mv preseut letter deiiln with the necessaries or luxuries of butter, checso, bacon and him, eptfs and fruit. Iv the case of butter wo need not consider the wholes 110 and retail prices at which it in sold, as tho almost universal margin between them in thK country is almost 3d per lb.; th.it is, if the wholesale prico is 9d or 1b per lb, tho retail prices will be Is and Is :}il per lb. Therefore, of necessity, the pprcentajre difference between th-3 two prices will vary. Taking th« 90,000 consumers at half-a-pound per head per week, gives 45,0001b8 of butter consumed, which, at 3d per lb pross profit, equals £562 10s per week. But our friends the farmers must not think that I am going to discourse on large margins of profit. No. Sometimes I have doubted whether or not in this country there is produced u really good sound butter. I know there is plenty of " stuff" sold under the name, but I should rather give it the name of " cow's grease," not butter. The jyeneral opinion can only be expressed that at times it is barely eatable, at others perfectly execrable,— in fact, Absolutely not fit for human food. lam thoroughly convinced that the average price received by the farmers for this concoction ought to realise a very handsome return upon its manufacture, and if there is any excessive profit it is the farmers who reap it, and the sooner he ig made to comprehend hJ9 position, the better for the palate and diarestive organs of man it will be. There is a custom very prevalent in the country towns,— though I cannot speak for tho largo tows— in which the tradesmen are made to pay very dearly for the privilege of trading- with a farmer by having this horrible grease, misnamed butter, *ent to them in return for goods supplied. I emphatically say this is dishonest. Our farmers may say the tradesmen ought to complain, but they do not like to do this, for fear of losing trade and offending the pride of their customers, though at times complaints have to be made in self-defence. The townspeople complain very much about the butter. Surely there must be something radically wrong when it is such an apparently difficult matter to produce a really good article. Where can we look for tho cause of this failure ? In the cattle, in the pastures and feed of our cows, in tho drinking water, or in the management of the dairy ? Tho breed of cattle generally used for milking- could, with great advantage, be very considerably improved upon, to the greatly increased profit of producer and consumer, and at no great expense, by buying a good male animal and by careful selection of femnles. Of pastures I have written previously, and intend to enlarge upon hereafter I wonder if ever it has occurred to the minds of our farmers that when cows can obtain nothing el«e but swamp water, containing a large amount of organic matter, it must of necessity deteriorate to a very considerable extent the qu-ility of the milk, hence the products resulting therefrom, as butter and cheese. Farmers may pooh-pooh the idea, but is it sensible to consider good for an animal what is bad for man, particularly water, As to dairy management. Thin is rather a delicate matter, an impugning the management by the farmers' wives. I am not anxious to bring down upon my head the ire of these prood ladies. They have more of my sympathy than condemnation. It in the men who rouse my anger, for their manners and selfishness in beiug content to watch their poor wives, the mothers of their children, slaving- year by year from early morn to late at night, all work and no pleasure. In too many instances the real help-mate of man is looked upon by him more as a slave than as an intelligent companir-n, and this, too, in cases when help could be easily afforded, either pecuniarily or personally. No wonder, then, that all the care and ntteution necessary to dairy productions cannot be bentowed. Cheese, bacon and ham, an being- the products of our factories, must be taken together. The average wholesale price of cheese can be taken at 5 Ad per lb, the average retail price at 7^d per lb, or 2d perlb difference, equal to ■iboufc 37 per cent, ou the wholesale price. Farmers must remember that if these factories do not realise a fair price for their cheese, they cannot afford to give a fair price for the milk. I care not to enlarge upon this matter now, as I consider the factory system of producing cheese, butter, preserved milk, bacon and hams as" one needing' development, but most certainly under a vast deal better mode of management than prevails at present. I mean by the directors of these factories and not by the managers. Bacon and ham is largely produced by the cheese factories, and also by the individual farmer, though the former is usually sold in its cured state, and the latter alive. Bacon pigs sold at auction generally bring threepence per lb., when made into bacon and ham, and sold wholesale about sevenpence per lb., and retailed at an average price of tenpence per lb. A pig weighing 1501bs when dead and ready for curing has brought the farmer at threepence per lb, 37s Gri, which, when cured and sold wholesale at sevenpence per lb., is 87s 6d or a difference of 50s, equal to a percentage difference of 133 per cent., and retailed at ten pence, equals 1255, or a difference between'the wholesale and retail prices of 37s 6d, equal to a percentage of 43 per cent., but between the fat pig and the retail price of bacon, etc., there is a difference of S7s 6d or 233 per cent. Out of this has to come the expenses of curing, distributing, etc. If we allow the 133 per cent, as an ample margin to meet all expenses, there is the mngnificient profit of 100 per cent, to be divided amongst the wholesale and retail tradesmen. Over and above this, don't forget the auctioneers' little plums. Eggs : The usual margin between wholesale and retail prices is threepence per dozen, and the percentage diGFerence varies with the price. Our last and also very necessary article of human consumption is fruit. This can only be dealt with in a very general manner, on account of the great variety in fruits, fts in'tbeir prices. In fact one can hardly do otherwise than make the assertion that 150 per cent, is the margin between what the growers receive and the consumers pay, though I have been assured over and over again by fruit growers that 200 and 300 per cent, are very common marsrins between what they get and the retail prices charged in the shops for the same fruit. To take a common fruit as an example, suppose a lb of apples is sold wholesale for Hd per lb, my estimate of 150 percent srross profit would make the retail price 3£d per lb, at 200 per cent., and 300 per cent, the retail price would be 4Jd and 6d per lb respectively. Iti 9 a wonder that these tradesmen have not the ordinary commercial common sense to to understand the groat injury they do themselves by curtailing tbrir trade by such exhorbitant primps, th»rpby depriving 1 consumers of a life's necet-s try and a great pleasure. UT. PRObIM.

Drowned ov hm Wedding Day. — At Spnlding, on Thursday, a coroner's jury returned a verdict of " Accidentally drowned " in the case of John Hubbard. The deceased, who was sped 20 years, was a groom. He was married on Wednesday morning last, and in the afternoon went to skate on some frozen water on a pit. Tho ice gave way, and he irai drowned.